The Coaches Behind the Title Part VIII: Leaders up front

Thursday

Coach Jonathan Lewis talks winning state title with Hopewell, DL's role in championship

- This is Part 8 of The Progress-Index's series on the 2017 state championship winning Hopewell Football coaches and their players.

HOPEWELL - Hopewell defensive line coach Jonathan Lewis has an ACC ring from his college football playing days when he and his Virginia Tech Hokies won the conference championship in 2004.

“But this state championship ring probably surpasses that,” Lewis said as a coach on the Hopewell Blue Devils’ 2017 state title-winning staff, “because you work with kids all the time, and you see the things we go through from the beginning.”

In his high school playing days as a Blue Devil for Varina, Lewis was part of a team that played for the state championship two years in a row...and lost both times.

“So to actually get a VHSL state championship is a pretty big deal for me,” Lewis said. “I was pretty excited to get a state ring. It’s something that I always wanted since I was 14 years old. Now I’m 33 and I’ve got one.”

As for what got the Hopewell Blue Devils their ultimate triumph?

“Just working hard,” Lewis said, “keeping at it, keeping at it and just winning bit by bit by bit until you’re there.”

COACH LEWIS

Before joining the Hopewell Blue Devils, Lewis held the role of graduate assistant at the University of Richmond for two years under Mike London; before that, he played five years professionally in the NFL, having been drafted by the Arizona Cardinals.

And before that, he played college football at Virginia Tech as a four-year starter.

This is his fourth year with Hopewell.

In transitioning from playing in the professional ranks to coaching at the high school level, Lewis said he “really learned how to simplify things while still driving the key points to the defensive line and the characteristics you want to have as a defensive lineman.”

And this year’s Hopewell defensive line - Lewis pointed out - was very coachable.

“You’ve got Daryan Blowe … it was his third year with me, and this year, it was almost like I didn’t have to coach him,” he said. “He already knew what I wanted him to do.”

Junior Keyonte Tarver transferred in and brought a big presence to both sides of the ball.

“He was very coachable, too,” Lewis said of Tarver. “He’s real knowledgeable as far as what his role is and what we needed him to do on our defensive line.”

And then they had a very young and talented player in athletic freshman Reggie Ruffin.

“I was coaching him everyday, and you could just see him week by week get better,” Lewis said, “and at the end of the season you really started to see him blossom and progress, and he’s still got a big upside to go, and I’m very excited to see what he’s gonna do in the next three years.”

THE TALENTS

With the defensive line, Hopewell Football preaches physicality, aggressiveness, relentlessness, getting to the ball, getting tackles for loss and getting takeaways.

Complementing a linebacker corps that was on average tackling ball carriers behind the line of scrimmage 4.2 times per game, linemen Daryan Blowe (10), Keyonte Tarver (11) and Reggie Ruffin (12) totaled 33 tackles for loss and as a unit averaged 2.2 TFLs per game. Ruffin also recovered two fumbles and forced one.

“They were pretty relentless. They were able to get off blocks,” Lewis said. “We practice situations all through the week, and you imagine it in your mind ... you rep it every week.”

Lewis also pointed out that the players pick their leaders, and the players gravitated to Blowe and to defensive back Riezon Murphy.

“And luckily,” he said, “those were some good guys to follow.”

Blowe’s not a big talker, Lewis pointed out, but he leads by example.

“This is a guy who came to the weight room everyday, lifted, gained I don’t know how many pounds, [maybe] 40 pounds of muscle, I mean just lifted hard everyday,” Lewis said. “He always did the right things at practice. It’s almost like I never had to tell him to do a rep over again because of effort. He just led by example so well, and since we had some young guys, I believe he set the bar at a pretty nice place. He set the precedent of how a senior’s supposed to practice, and how a Hopewell Football player’s supposed to practice.”

AN UP AND DOWN SEASON

In their state championship year, the Blue Devils still endured their share of trials. They opened the season on a tough loss to a senior-heavy I.C. Norcom team that Lewis described as speedy and very athletic.

“And we could’ve very much won that game if we had played better,” Lewis noted, “and we understood that even though we lost the game, we’ve been around enough to know that we still had a pretty good team, and we were just young.”

They were starting multiple freshmen - Ruffin, Robert Briggs and Trey Henderson - and they had a lot of players on the offensive line who had never before started in varsity. The 2017 defensive line was also an inexperienced group overall, as, in addition to freshman Ruffin, transfer Keyonte Tarver was new to the Hopewell varsity program.

But the Blue Devils knew there’d be a difference between the team they were in September, and the team they would eventually become in November.

“And then we went on this six-game win streak, so it was almost like, ‘Who are we? Are we plateauing or not?’” Lewis said. “And I think that Thomas Dale and those three [consecutive] losses kind of helped us understand what we needed to get better at ...and put key players in key positions and things of that nature, and I think we rolled after that.”

After taking those three losses to Thomas Dale, Dinwiddie and Meadowbrook, the 2017 Hopewell Blue Devils lost no more. They went undefeated the rest of the way in the five-game postseason to secure their first state title since 2003.

In that playoff stretch, Lewis felt they had a good shot after their win over Phoebus in the second round.

“We showed a lot of grit after that Phoebus win, because we had one big play on offense, and even though the offense didn’t score [after the touchdown and extra point], they still moved the ball, kept the clock going and our defense played great,” Lewis said. “After that Phoebus game, they really showed us: maybe we can do this.”

VERSUS HERITAGE

Rolling into Saturday’s state championship game versus Hopewell, Heritage running back Elijah Davis was on fire.

He was coming off a 401-yard, five-touchdown rushing performance that left Staunton River’s defense in the dust. And in the three games before that, his 16 combined rushing touchdowns against Liberty, Spotswood and Brookville showed that defenses didn’t have an answer for the talented rusher.

Then he met Daryan Blowe.

Throughout the season, Blowe had posted relatively quiet numbers compared to his teammates in the LB spots, although he could be counted on for about three to four tackles a game.

In the championship game alone, he had eight.

The senior dished out six solo tackles and made three tackles for loss, showing that he could bring down Elijah Davis behind the line of scrimmage.

“It was a beauty to see Blowe make plays in the backfield on a running back that was probably the best in the state,” Lewis said. “For him to do that, that was nice to watch. That was beautiful to watch, it was almost like the A-Team. It’s beautiful when a plan comes together...during the state championship game.”

Ruffin and Tarver also did their assignments well. They moved well and were quick to the ball and to their assignments. Lewis said they did a good job playing with their hands, and they played with great pad level against Heritage’s sizeable offensive line.

“They just did everything that I asked them and Coach had asked them to do,” Lewis said, “and that’s the reason why they’re state champions.”

Taking each game one play at a time has also kept them focused forward.

Lewis noted that, whenever they saw plays like the tackles that Blowe made on Davis, “it’s almost like a small fist pump in the back of your mind, but it’s like a next-play mentality.”

Even when Davis did break free like he did on his 80-yard scorcher, Lewis said: “It was still the next-play mentality.

“You can’t put your head down, say ‘Aw, he broke one on me,’” Lewis said. He added that the Blue Devils’ defense did a good job all year long of keeping that next-play mindset even when things weren’t going their way.

“That was a real special characteristic about this defense,” Lewis said, “just not getting down on themselves.”

HOW THE CHAMPIONS PRACTICED

Hopewell Football’s coaches have emphasized how the players made each other better by squaring off against one another throughout practice. They stressed how the team’s successes in those practice sessions translated into victory on the gameday field.

Where the defensive line was concerned, Lewis said they were fortunate enough to practice against a JV offensive line that this year enjoyed a strong season.

“They came up to the varsity and they brought the same intensity,” Lewis said. “We had a young freshman, Landen Baker, who was chopping our guys down all practice. So we were pretty ready for the chop block, because Landen did such a good job.”

Lewis praised the JV line’s blocking and effort, and along with his fellow coaches emphasized that the team won the year in practice.

“You’ve got to win Monday from game planning to scout teams to your practice reps,” Lewis said. “Those guys prepared us for the games. I’ve got to give them their props, the scout team offensive line.”

A FAMILY

As part of a Hopewell Football, Lewis said he has fun everyday.

“I have fun with the coaches, with the kids, we laugh … we’re always light on our feet, we’ve always got the kids laughing, we always keep each other laughing,” Lewis said. “And I think that’s just like a family.”

To Lewis, that’s one of the best parts of working at Hopewell: its family-like atmosphere.

“It’s rarely bad days,” he said. “Even when we take ‘em on the chin, we take ‘em on the chin together, and we say, ‘How’re we going to get this done, fellas? What do we need to do?’ And we always leave on a good note, come back ready to go the next week.”

Win, lose or draw, Hopewell - Lewis said - “is always a good place to be.”

- Nicholas Vandeloecht may be reached at nvandeloecht@progress-index.com, 804-722-5151 or @NickVanDelPI on Twitter.

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